Chapter 21
TABITHA
If I’ve ever been this happy in my whole entire life, I can’t remember.
There is still that nagging little voice in the back of my head, the one that’s been there since my third or fourth foster home, that keeps whispering this can’t last. That my new family will grow tired of me soon and then I’ll be on my own again.
But whenever that voice gets too loud, I go climb in Daddy’s lap or ask Auntie Gray to read me a story, and the voice gets quiet again.
Hopefully someday soon, the voice will disappear altogether.
“Sorry!” Lanie yells with a gleeful laugh as she bumps Josie’s game piece back to the beginning of the board.
Eyes narrowing, Josie lets out a low growl. “This game is rigged! I wanna play something else.”
Lanie rolls her eyes. “You’re just a sore loser.”
The hair on the back of my neck stands up. Years of living with unpredictable people have left me with a sort of sixth sense when it comes to conflict of any kind.
And just as I suspected, Josie jumps to her feet, hands on her hips as she glares down at Lanie. “I’m not a sore loser! You’re a cheater!”
“I did not cheat! You take that back!”
“Melanie Brynne and Josephine Elise. What’s going on in here?”
At the sound of our Auntie Gray’s voice, both my cousins whip around, their hands instinctively going behind them to protect their bottoms.
“Nothing, Auntie Gray,” they echo in unison, earning them both a raised brow from our Auntie.
“Huh. Must have been two other Little girls I heard in here screaming at each other.”
“Must have!” Josie agrees with a cheeky grin.
“Uh-huh. Well if those other naughty girls are gone, Josie and I have some errands to run in town, and I was thinking I’d take all my sweet little nieces with us for a girls’ day.”
Excited squeals erupt as my cousins bounce up and down. Laughing, Auntie Gray gestures toward the front door. “Well come on, then. Let’s go.”
A tentative sort of excitement creeps up my spine as I watch my cousins hurry toward the entryway as fast as they can without actually running. “Can I come, too?”
Auntie Gray blinks down at me. “Of course you can come, honey. You’re my niece too, aren’t you?”
Heat blossoms on my cheeks. “Yes, but I just got here and I wasn’t sure…”
Crouching down in front of me, Auntie Gray grips my chin between her fingers the way Daddy sometimes does when he wants my full attention.
“You listen to me, little girl. It doesn’t matter one lick how long you’ve been a part of this family.
You are a part of it, and that is all that matters to me and everyone else. Am I understood?”
“Y-yes, Auntie.”
“Good girl. Go get your shoes on before I have to spank you for making us late.”
I scramble to my feet and rush to the front door to put on the white Mary Janes Daddy bought to go with my dress. Auntie Gray insists on us all wearing coats, which Lanie whines about until our auntie pops her bottom a couple times.
My coat is a pretty pale-pink peacoat that matches my dress perfectly, so it doesn’t bother me at all to wear it, and Auntie Gray beams approvingly as I slip it on without complaint. Once we’re all appropriately attired for our trip, Auntie Gray ushers us outside to a large black SUV.
“Shotgun!” Josie calls, dancing beside the vehicle.
But Auntie Gray shakes her head. “You know the rules, Josephine Elise. Little girls in the back. You’re too little to sit up front.”
“Oh come on, Gray.” Josie’s voice pitches up to a whine. “The Daddies aren’t here, we can do whatever we want.”
Taking Josie by the arm, Auntie Gray spins her around and lands several hard swats to the backs of her thighs while Josie yelps and dances in place.
“First of all, you know how to address me, little girl. Second of all, just because your Daddies aren’t around does not mean you can do whatever you please.
You still have Auntie Gray to answer to and I will be enforcing every single one of your Daddies’ rules.
Am I making myself crystal clear, girls? ”
“Yes, Auntie Gray,” we all chorus together, though Josie sounds significantly sulkier than Lanie and myself as she rubs at the backs of her bright-red thighs.
“Good.” With a sharp nod, Auntie Gray opens the back door for all of us to climb in. “And just so you know, I have my hairbrush in my purse and I will not hesitate to take a naughty Little girl to the bathroom and redden her bottom if she needs it.”
“Do you really think she’d spank us in public?” I ask in a low whisper when Auntie Gray shuts the door behind us.
Lanie shakes her head. “I don’t know, but I’m not going to test her, either. Daddy swatted my butt right in front of the sheriff one time and I thought I might actually die of embarrassment.”
“In front of the sheriff? And he didn’t get arrested?”
Rolling her eyes, Josie snorts derisively. “The sheriff and Auntie Gray have a weird ‘enemies to lovers’ thing going on. She talks a big game but I don’t think she’d actually ever arrest any of the Thornes.”
“Really? That’s so—”
Auntie Gray opens the driver side door and Lanie shakes her head at me, signaling me to hush. In the review mirror, our auntie narrows her eyes at us. “What are you girls plotting back there?”
“We were taking bets on how much chocolate we can talk you into buying as at the candy store.”
The lie slips so easily from Josie’s lips, I almost believe her.
And clearly, so does Auntie Gray. Shaking her head, she puts the car in reverse and backs out of the driveway. “You can each have a quarter pound of candy and that’s it.”
Judging by the smug looks Josie and Lanie share, we’ll all be coming home with more than a quarter pound of candy.
I can’t wait.
Tabitha
Forbidden Pines is the kind of small town I’ve always seen depicted on TV but never actually seen in real life. Rows of cheerful buildings line the streets, and the sidewalks are dotted with people either walking from one place to the next or simply standing and chatting with a neighbor.
A bright, colorful awning catches my attention and I sit up straighter, craning my neck to see the candy store Lanie talked about the whole way into town. But to my disappointment, Auntie Gray drives past it to another building.
“Okay, girls. First things first, Josie needs to go talk to Poppy about this signing thing they’re setting up since Poppy can’t seem to do anything without making it an entire production.
” Despite the eyeroll that accompanies Auntie Gray’s remarks, there’s a note of affection in her tone when she speaks of Poppy that makes me wonder if there’s something…
more there. “And then I need to swing by the post office to drop off a couple packages. Once those two chores are done we can go do a little shopping. Everyone wait right there for me to come let you out.”
As soon as Auntie Gray climbs out of the car, Josie reaches for her seatbelt. “Josie!” Lanie hisses at her. “Do you wanna get your butt popped right in the middle of Main Street?”
“She wouldn’t do that!”
“It’s your funeral,” Lanie mutters darkly.
Luckily, it’s a moot point, because the back door swings open a moment later and Auntie Gray beams approvingly at us. “Good girls. You may unbuckle your seatbelts now.”
We all scramble to unbuckle and climb out of the car.
Once we’re gathered on the sidewalk in front of the bookstore, Auntie Gray pins us with a stern glare.
“I know you’re all excited about a trip into town, but no wandering off.
If you leave the store we’re in without me, I will take you to the closest bathroom and paddle your bare bottom with my brush.
Am I making myself perfectly clear, little girls? ”
There are people around, not standing super close, but certainly close enough to hear her if they paid attention.
Embarrassment floods my entire body, and it’s all I can do to answer “Yes, Auntie” with the other girls, even though I feel like I might actually die right there in the middle of the street.
As Auntie Gray said, we start with the bookstore, which also looks exactly like it was plucked from a movie set.
Rows upon rows of books, both new and old, line the floor-to-ceiling shelves surrounding us.
There are smaller shelves carefully placed in the middle of the store, as well as tables stacked high with current bestsellers.
Beside me, Josie heaves a quiet, happy sigh. “I swear I could live here.”
“Josie!” A happy squeal rings out in the store and a moment later a blur of movement tackles her.
The blur, I realize belatedly, is a woman. A rather adorable woman with an explosion of red hair and a smattering of freckles scattered across her grinning face.
“Hi, Poppy,” Josie says with a laugh, returning the woman’s hug.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so excited you’re here!” Poppy glances at me, then does a double take, curiosity lighting her eyes. “Who’s this? Another Thorne bride?”
Suddenly feeling very, very exposed, I move closer to Josie, who wraps her arm around my shoulder and gives it a reassuring squeeze. “Yes, in fact. This is Tabby. She and Un—and Colt met in Vegas and fell madly in love.”
Hands pressed to her heart, Poppy sighs dreamily. “Oh, that’s so romantic. I swear the Thorne brothers have some kind of reverse-curse on them where they all fall in love at first sight. Now if only we could work that magic on Grayson so she and the sheriff would finally—”
“So me and the sheriff would what, Persephone?”
Cheeks flaming red, Poppy turns toward Auntie Gray. “Hey, Gray. Didn’t see you there.”
Auntie Gray raises a brow. “Clearly. You know, Poppy, if you want me to be friendlier with the sheriff, I could always start by telling her about this conversation. You know how much she loves gossip.”
“Gray, no!” Poppy whines, sounding so much like a Little girl in trouble with her Daddy that my eyebrows wing up toward my hairline. “If you do that she’ll come over here and lecture me and you know her lectures go on forever.”
“Then I suggest you keep my name out of your mouth, little girl.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
A smug smile curves Auntie Gray’s lips. “Good. Now, I believe you and Josie have some details to work out about the signing in a few weeks?”
“We do. Come on, Josie, I have some things back in the office I need you to approve.”
“Go on,” Auntie Gray says when Josie looks over at her. “We’ll be waiting out here when you’re done.”
Tugging on Josie’s arm, Poppy leads her away and Auntie Gray turns her attention on me. “You might as well find something to read and settle in for a bit. Once Poppy gets going it takes her a while to run out of steam.”
“Oh.” Glancing out the large picture window to my right, I stare longingly at the colorful store across the street. “Couldn’t we go do some shopping while we wait for Josie?”
“No, we stick together, remember? But if you get too bored there are some puzzles and games in that corner there. Poppy likes to have a space where people can just hang out even if they aren’t buying anything.”
If I’d wanted to play games, I could have just stayed home.
But I don’t say that, as much as I want to. Instead, I nod, and begin to wander the store. Lanie is carefully scanning a shelf of romance books and Auntie Gray makes her way over to check on her.
It doesn’t take long for the boredom to set in, which is odd. I love books, and under any other circumstances I would have no problem spending an hour or more in Poppy’s adorable little store, browsing titles and carefully selecting just the right book to bring home with me.
Today, however, all I can think about is the candy store. And the more I wander, the more restless I become. It doesn’t seem fair that we have to be stuck here just because Josie has work to do. Why can’t the rest of us go shopping and come back for her when she finishes with Poppy?
The more I think about it, the more annoyed I get. It really isn’t fair that our supposed “girls’ day” is centered entirely around Josie. Don’t Lanie and I matter? Shouldn’t we get a vote in what we get to do?
Glancing over, I see Auntie Gray bent over a book with Lanie, neither of them paying any attention to me. I inch toward the front door, keeping an eye on them the entire time.
Someone enters the store, the bells above the door jangling happily. Auntie Gray glances up, sees the person entering, and then returns to her conversation with Lanie.
This is my chance. Heart pounding, I slip out the door before it has a chance to close. For a long moment, I stand on the sidewalk, torn between being a good girl and going back inside, or for once in my life, doing what I want to do.
As I’m trying to decide, a couple exits the candy store holding giant bags, excited smiles stretched across their faces. And I decide right then that I’m really freaking tired of being a good girl.